New radio: DAB or internet radio

[Guest mattscholey]

Hi,

Don't know if anyone on this forum has any knowledge of this, but it's a very helpful place, so I could get some useful responses.

I want to buy a new radio. Nothing on AM/FM suits my taste, and I've never listened to it (into general rock BTW), so I've been thinking about getting the next generation of radio.

The two options appear to be:

1. DAB Digital Radio

2. Streaming Internet Radio

The Philips Streamium www.streamium.com looks like a great device, as it allows you stream internet radio from a wi-fi broadband router, to your hi-fi, without a computer. It also allows streaming of MP3's from your PC's hard drive (although I basically have this already with my ipod connected to my hi-fi), as well as stream videos off the net, and your PC. However, two things are putting me off it. The first is the price, which will be €400 (£250 approx), which I could afford (being 15 my financing is quite simple), but it would be a lot. The second, is the poor quality (in both content and sound) of the vast majority of internet radio stations. There are so many to search through, most of which aren't great. Also, it's a technology that's only just emerging, and as the Streamium would be something I don't plan on upgrading every year (like the SPV), that's definately a concern.

DAB Digital Radio sounds great on the surface, but www.digitalradiotech.co.uk has exposed to me that it's not what it's hyped up to be, and that the audio quality is very poor (FM with good reception sounds better), due to the low bitrates used by broadcasters. Also, the choice is no where near as good as on the net, but at least whats there is of good quality (and there are a number of stations, notable 'The Arrow' which seem right up my street). The cost of the units are good at £120ish as well. But it doesn't have the 'extra' features of the Streamium, like video.

So what do you think. DAB v Streamium? If you use either DAB or net radio, what's your advice? And do you know of any Streamium alternatives?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks,

Matt

[Guest kyrkesmith]

I'd definately go the DAB route. The broadcast quality is almost always better on DAB, and the quality varies quite a lot between broadcasters. I've got my eye on the upcoming Sony XDR-S1, which looks very decent.

Alternatively, a few extra radio stations are available through a DVB Freeview box, which would be the cheapest option...

[Guest Taoski]

I'm sure i read somewhere that mainline stations like Radio1 and the like would be producing better quality internet streams in the not so far off future. I agree - that at the moment the quality is crapola!

I have used iTunes to listen to Internet Radio and some of the (dance) stations streaming at 128 are perfect quality!

I have also used the Viddi radio player after uninstalling iTunes which was ok - but not excellent.

So... if we could get the better quality channels over a broadband connection... then go for the Stremium type products.

Or... double it up with a USB/PCI freeview decoder and get the high quality radio to your PC - and then stream off to your stereo.

[Guest mattscholey]

Since I posted this topic, I've bought a DAB Digital Radio (model: cambridge audio DAB300), and couldn't be happier with it. No noticable audio quality problems - definately better than FM and the net. The station content however is nothing special, with the exception of the BBC stations (BBC 6 Music is now my fave station). Commercial stations are nothing special compared the net radio, and the choice is a lot better on the net, so if it wasn't for the BBC, I'd be reccommending the Streamium.

But I think it's definately DAB all the way - excellent audio quality, decent to excellent station content.

Matt

[Guest kyrkesmith]

Yeah, I believe that's a result of DAB licenses being so expensive. Conversely there aren't any licenses to broadcast an internet stream (just bandwidth costs etc.).